Story by Robert Kidman, CN Winters and Zahir al Daoud

Written by Robert Kidman and CN Winters

Produced and Directed by CN Winters

Edited by Dan Joslyn

Sounds by CSR

Art Direction by Robert Kidman

Artists – Robert Kidman and CN Winters

The library was packed with watchers, some racing up and down aisles to collect books; others brainstorming on a fold-up whiteboard; some others sat at tables, the surfaces strewn with piles upon piles of books.

Rowena leaned forward in her chair, elbow on the table with her head supported by her hand. Her red vacant eyes stared down at an array of glossy pictures of ancient text.

A hand out reached to touch her arm; it was Robin. She sniffed, blinking back her tears. Robin squeezed her arm lightly with a reassuring smile and looked back to his research.

Willow limped into the library on crutches, with a bandage covering part of her forehead. She paced down to the table where Rowena and Robin sat and took a seat next to Rowena, propping her crutches against her chair before lacing her fingers through Rowena’s. Surprised, Rowena looked up and began to sob at the sight of Willow's hand on hers. Willow softly smiled and turned her attention back to the research. Rowena followed suit, all the while their hands still locked.

Faith struck the Slam Man with a barrage of hard-hitting punches on the spots that lit up in sequence. With each strike the model-like device swayed back and forth, the weights in the bottom keeping it stable despite the strength behind the slayer’s hits.

Beads of sweat erupted from her pores; her tank-top was damp, sticking to her skin. Faith continued to beat the device, harder, faster as the length between each light decreased. She grit her teeth, her knuckles becoming sorer with each connection with the hard plastic. Faith began to let out a scream that quickly grew louder.

The sequence finished and Faith doubled over, resting her hands on her knees, breathing in heavily. Another light flashed on the forehead of the Slam Man a moment later, and in a heart-beat Faith stood and delivered a round-house kick to the head of the device, sending the heavy contraption crashing to the laminate floor.

Dawn sat on the couch, books and black and white photocopies of the pictures of ancient symbols on the seat next to her. Sitting across from her in a highchair was Elizabeth, seemingly content playing with her toys. Shannon walked into the room, her arms filled with books.

Dawn gave Shannon a slight grin to convey thanks but again started to scan the books in front of her along with the photocopies. On her large notepad she jotted down possible words and sentences but the amount of scribbling outweighed the amount of actual accurate translations.

Skye lay back on her bunk with her hands behind her head, staring up at the cracked stone ceiling.

Voiceover Giles: "But again you have to ask yourself; put yourself in the shoes of whatever higher power holds the answer to such a question."

Large black trucks bearing the Council’s logo backed up into the entrance of the large depot. As they came to a stop, slayers and crew members of Xander’s workshop opened the backs of the vehicles, retracting the ramps to reveal large industry equipment: diggers, drills, floodlights. They proceeded to unload the equipment, placing certain items on trolleys or just leaving them in the warehouse.

Kennedy and Kadin were two of those unloading the trucks. Coming down the ramp of a truck, Kennedy wheeled a floodlight down to the floor, maneuvering the trolley around other people who weaved past her.

She continued across the active warehouse floor to where other lights stood within a masking tape section. Kennedy placed the trolley inside the border and put her foot down on the brake.

She clapped her hands together for a job well done, but more to get rid of the dirt from the trolley handle. She wiped her hands on her jeans and looked back to the other trucks. With a sigh, she put a foot forward and began to take a slow walk back over to help unload.

Voiceover Giles: "Quantifiable evidence has told us who we are; a flesh woven bag of bones, organs and blood. Charming."

The door to the office pushed open and Willow walked inside with a pair of crutches. Dr. Miller sat at his desk and glanced up at her, giving her an awkward smile which faded as he looked back to Becca who sat opposite him, biting her nails. Her eyes were glassy and her body trembled slightly. To her left sat Buffy, her hand on top of Becca’s as it gripped the chair.

Dr. Miller began to speak as Willow took a seat to Becca’s right, reaching out and placing her hand on top of hers in a similar fashion to Buffy.

With each word he spoke, Willow swallowed hard and her hold on Becca grew stronger.

Dr. Miller stood taking a folder into his hand. He walked over to a wall light and produced semi-transparent, shiny black scans. He flicked the switch and the light illuminated the scans as he held them up, revealing a brain scan. He pointed to certain areas on the scan, areas that were black and gray.

As he finished speaking, tears fell from Becca’s eyes. She brought her hands up to cover her face. Willow rubbed her back and looked up to Dr. Miller who took his glasses off and threw them on his desk. Buffy and Willow looked at each other but said nothing.

Voiceover Giles: "You can’t define an answer the likes of this one with a beginning and an end, in one clear statement, with so many connotations you can’t measure, for how long is a piece of string?"

Buffy sat at her large desk with her diary open at the entry for the next day. At the top of the page she had wrote ‘Council Meeting Agenda’, and had begun to write down key points.

As she wrote the text became mottled, the ink running as a small pool of water fell onto the page.

Buffy broke down, the tears falling heavily down onto the page. She slammed the diary shut and pushed it away from her, collapsing forward onto the table, wrapping her arms round her head.

Voiceover Giles: "Perhaps the question we should be asking is: how have we come to where we are today? And where are we going?"

Sweaty, fatigued, Xander stalked into the kitchen straight to the fridge. Once he had opened it, he brought out an icy can of soda pop and snapped back the tab, guzzling the refreshing drink down. As he closed the fridge and turned to leave Vi walked in, the pair of them jumping a little, not expecting the other to be there.

The two lovers gazed back at each other for a brief moment. As if instinctively knowing what was next, they walked to each other and pulled one another into a tight embrace.

Voiceover Giles: "Knowledge and intuition are a double-edged sword with a blade so sharp."

The doors to the library swung open as Rowena walked out into the empty hallway. She wandered down the hallway, further away from the library until she came to a stop and leaned up against the wall, resting her head back. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Mirroring the bustle of the library, the Coven members were working hard. Whiteboards were scattered round the room with groups of four to each board, with little or no white visible between the scribbles in red marker.

Voiceover Giles: "Those are the two factors behind the progression of mankind, and behind what drives us as a species, as individuals."

Andrew and Jeff jotted down something on one of the whiteboards. More pictures of ancient text and symbols were pinned up and stuck to the edges of the boards.

They took a step back, examining what they had scribed. Both grimaced, then stepped forward and wiped parts of the board clean and began to fill in the gaps, their eyes darting between the pictures of the text and symbols and the whiteboard.

Voiceover Giles: "It’s not the destination that will ultimately shape and change us; it’s the journey."

An incessant, slow beep from various medical instruments reverberated through the room.

ECG readings repeated in neon green waves from one side of the black screen to the other before restarting. The length of the line was shallow and small but still very much alive.

Close-up of Giles lying on a hospital bed, his body rigged up to various machines. His eyes were closed, his chest cavity leisurely filling up with air aided by a breathing apparatus.

A thunderous crash filled the valley as a mechanical digger pierced the earth, the vehicle arching up as the claw tore into the dark earth creating a gaping black hole.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" The foreman yelled, racing over to the digger. He slammed his fist against the dull metallic body of the vehicle. "Tony! Tony! Back it up! Back it up!" His voice competed with the sound of other drilling and digging as well as the churning sound of the drill head, which seemed to echo up from the hole in the earth.

Putting the gear stick in reverse, Tony pulled against gravity and managed to back the vehicle up, bringing the drill head out of the ground.

At a safe distance, Tony stopped the engine. He was greeted by the foreman who nearly ripped the door off of the digger’s cab.

"What in the hell did you do?"

"I didn’t do nothin’ Pete. I was just diggin’ and the drill head just fell through somethin’."

"Through somethin’?!" Pete questioned. By now the other men had started to gather by the digger and the fissure in the ground. "Hey, hey!" He paced away from the digger.

"It was like it hit stone!" Tony called out after him, taking off his hard hat and throwing it on the other seat in the cab.

Pete ran to the hole, parting the others as he tried to get nearer. "Okay guys, move back, move back."

As he reached the fissure, he bent down, teetering on the edge as he peered over. "Jeez what the…"

One of the other men bent down too, gazing into the endless black below. "Wanna drop a penny?"

Pete looked round the disturbed earth and found a rock. Placing his hand out over the hole, he held it there for a moment and then let go. With bated breath the crew watched as the stone was engulfed by the black and listened intently for the sound of it hitting the ground. Eyes shifted, looking from one another back to the hole; an eerie silence had descended over the site. Moments later they heard the faintest sound of the rock hitting the ground inside the hole.

"How far down do you think that is?" One of them asked.

"Far."

"Guys, you might wanna look at this," said one of them as he began to shift the earth away from around the fissure.

The crew carefully moved towards the man; with each handful of dirt he lifted and cast to one side he began to uncover what looked like a stone tablet with strange carvings almost resembling letters. As he continued to part the earth he found more strange carvings in what now seemed like a section of roof.

"What the…what the hell is this?" Pete let out. His eyes, as well as those of the others around him, moved back to the fissure in the earth.

Tony pulled a cell phone from his pocket and dialed a number.

"Who you calling?" Pete asked.

"My cousin, Gene. He’s a cop," he said before turning toward the phone. "Yeah, Gene. I’m on a site and got something that might be interesting to that friend of yours at that Council place. You gotta check this out."